From now on, live-ish blogs from the 2024 season of boat club will come alongside recounting my paddle history. Next week we’ve got our start-of-season pool session, so I’ll do a blog about that, and then it’ll depend how often there’s something blog-worthy. So, for the sake of being topical rather than mining my last ten years of on-off paddling, I thought I’d do a post about what I wear kayaking. I have three sub-sections here: what I usually wear, what I wear in hot weather and other stuff that I don’t necessarily wear much. This is just my personal kit – it doesn’t include my own safety & emergency stuff or boat club group kit.
(Today I learned how hot it is to wear neoprene and jump up and down in a house.)
What I usually wear
Let’s start at the base layers. A swimsuit! It’s meant to be wet, it doesn’t sap my body heat and it dries pretty quickly. Actually, a two-piece tankini can be easier to change in and out of in semi-public – the boathouse doesn’t have any changing rooms or cubicles so we change under dryrobes or big towels. I usually keep my old swimsuits for paddling purposes, the ones that are no longer fit to be seen on their own for swimming but are fine underneath other things and to get full of salt water. Those ones don’t get photographed for the internet, though.
Next, I wear a rash vest, or swimsuit t-shirt. Again, it’s meant to be wet, it doesn’t cling as much as a normal t-shirt, it dries quicker and again, unlike cotton, it doesn’t steal my body heat. Mine is a bit oversized, partly because I don’t like it to be skintight but partly because I don’t like things touching my neck and I hoped the collar would be bigger. It’s not, so I’ve folded it back and pinned it with safety pins. They’ve been in place for about five years now and haven’t rusted so I consider that a result. The t-shirt is partly for sun protection on my shoulders, extra wind protection and partly just for covering the swimsuit, depending on the weather. Mine is an own-brand men’s rash vest from Mountain Warehouse – they don’t do the exact model anymore because it’s at least five years old but it has many similar ones in stock at the moment.
On my feet, I usually wear a pair of black and blue neoprene socks. I bought them in 2004 from the long-defunct Dragon Caving shop in South Wales. They used to have grippy patches on the soles and the grip pattern has long worn away but otherwise, they’re in incredibly good condition for twenty-year-old neoprene socks that spent three years in caves and the last decade in kayaks. My one complaint is that the soles are a bit thin which means they can be a bit uncomfortable on the shoreline, but they were meant to be worn inside wellies so they were supposed to be a bit thin.
Over the swimsuit and t-shirt, I wear a long-john wetsuit. I did a lot of my early paddling with Fore/Adventure at Studland and they hand out the Peak UK Centre Long John wetsuit. I liked it, I liked the fit, I liked that it left my arms free and I liked the price. I think it’s called the Centre suit because it’s designed to be worn by beginners, easy to get in and out of, maybe not taken care of properly and really, to be semi-disposable. However, if you do look after it, it’ll last just as long as any other wetsuit. As a summer paddler, it’s nice and versatile, in that it keeps the important bits warm but leaves me able to make a decision case-by-case about what I do with the rest of me and yes, no mobility restrictions around the shoulders and arms. It’s 2.5mm neoprene with grippy 3mm patches on the bum and the knees and it’s great.
Over the top, depending on the weather, I wear a sailing cagoule. It’s lightweight, windproof and waterproof with a big hood and it loves to get wet. I don’t wear it every time but probably 8 times out of 10. Even in hot weather, it’s likely to be colder and windier out on the water – and besides, if it’s that hot, it doesn’t hurt to have some sun protection. If I get hot, I can always push up the sleeves and dip my hands in the water to cool down. Actually, the sleeves are quite long and wide and the elastic cuffs aren’t particularly tight so I do tend to scoop up water whether I want to or not. Mine is from Decathlon. They don’t seem to sell it anymore – it’s a smock-style, with a quarter-zip and a big pocket with an inadequate velcro closure, and all the current styles seem to be full zip.
Last, and most importantly, a buoyancy aid. Mine is from Decathlon again and it is still available! I started with the ITIWIT 50N+ zip-up BA, which is great for shoving a GoPro down, but it’s bulky and it has a crotch strap that isn’t in any way compatible with wearing a spraydeck – I don’t own one; I borrow one from Fore/Adventure when I go out with them and I don’t wear one at boat club. My current one is the ITIWIT 50N life vest with pockets which is still bulky but.. it has pockets! I wanted to be able to carry stuff around when I was at boat club and the entire front is a pocket! More than that, it has mesh pockets on the outside and more mesh pockets for keeping organised on the inside and the back is a pocket too, for your hydration bladder – or for things you probably won’t want and if you do, someone else has to get it for you. It’s an adequate BA for the price but it would be nice to have one a bit smaller.
What I wear in hot weather
Boat club is summer only, and good weather only. If it’s cold and wet and windy, that’s a hazard for the girls and it’s also offputting for their first paddle, so we cancel. That means occasionally we’re out in excruciatingly hot weather, in which case I’d rather not be in the wetsuit. Last year I wasn’t expecting that weather and wasn’t prepared for it but this year I am!
On top, I might wear the rash vest or I might not. The buoyancy aid covers everything that needs to be covered, to be honest, but I might wear the rash vest to keep the sun off my shoulders or because I suspect it’s not quite as boiling hot out on the water.
Instead, I wear a pair of swimming shorts. Obviously, the swimsuit is still underneath. My shorts are men’s swimming shorts from Primark in dark blue, which means they don’t really change colour or go translucent when they get wet.
On my feet, I wear a pair of long neoprene socks. Just because I’m not wearing a wetsuit doesn’t mean I don’t want my legs protected while I wade out into the shallows and launch the boat, so I invested in a pair of long socks from Amazon specifically for those hot nights when I’m not in the wetsuit. I’m sure it all makes quite the look when put together but it does the job.
Things I don’t wear much
A couple of years ago I replaced my neoprene caving socks with some thicker-soled neoprene booties with zips. I wanted better protection when I’m on the shore and I figured zips would make them easier to get on and off, because the neoprene socks suck at my feet and make it an effort to get off. I bought a pair of Olaian surfing neoprene zip boots 500 3mm from – you guessed it – Decathlon! But I don’t wear them much because they’re even harder to get off than the socks and the thicker soles aren’t actually much thicker or much more protective. I’m still going to yelp at every stone I stand on as I carry boats down to the sea.
I also have a pair of neoprene gloves – Subea diving gloves 2mm neoprene from Decathlon, so they’re not really meant for paddling. I actually bought them for sea swimming because I hate getting my arms and hands cold – I will wade out with my arms above my head like I’m surrendering to Neptune rather than put them in the water. I don’t often wear them for kayaking because they don’t have a lot of grip and my hands slide on the paddle. Even when I was a caver, I preferred the security of bare hands over keeping them warm, but I do tend to shove them down my cagoule in case I want them later.
And last, other than the Lidl shortie wetsuit I can’t get into on my own and have never worn, I have a mid-sleeved neoprene jacket/top. It has a 1mm neoprene body, zips up, and has elbow-length sleeves in a kind of swimsuit fabric. I don’t often wear it but when it’s cold, it’s a good extra layer to wear under the long-john wetsuit – extra neoprene, extra coverage, still have freedom of movement in the arms. As per, it’s from Decathlon. The exact one is no longer in stock but it’s similar to this one, except the sleeves are navy instead of floral.
My wishlist
A couple of things I’d like but which are a little out of my budget:
A less-bulky buoyancy aid with pockets. I haven’t picked a dream BA but a lot of pros seem to favour the Peak ones.
Peak Ocean Bothy. On my Sea Kayak Award course, we all had one of these in our hatches and put them on after lunch. They’re massively oversized cagoules meant to be popped on over everything, BA and all, to keep the wind and the rain off you and they’re magnificent. They’re also £200 which I can’t justify on something that’s really only a backup, especially as we’re rarely out for longer than an hour at boat club.
Neoprene sleeves. I’ve never had any need for extra warmth and restriction on the arms but in an ideal world where I had a ton of kit I don’t really need, I’d like to have a pair of sleeves I can add to essentially turn my long-john into a full-length wetsuit. If I did more winter paddling, I’d probably just invest in a full-length wetsuit and in the summer, I’ve so far never needed or wanted neoprene on my arms.
Bumblebee Paddles 